THE OLD SOUTH AND THE NEW 67 



i 



Imported to this country at an enormous cost in suffering and in 

 money; trained and disciplined during two hundred and fifty 

 years of slavery, and now waiting to be developed, under the in- 

 fluences of free institutions, the Negro is one of the great nat- 

 ural resources of this southern community. This being so, the 

 prosperity of the South is very largely bound up with the latent 

 possibilities of the Negro. Just in proportion as he becomes an 

 efficient farmer and a dependable laborer, just to that extent 

 will the whole country move forward and prosperity be multi- 

 plied. 



If Negro labor is to become more efficient, every effort should 

 be made to encourage rather than to discourage the Negro in his 

 ambition to go forward, to buy land and plant himself perma- 

 nently on the soil. In the long run the planter will not suffer 

 from the existence in his neighborhood of Negro fanners who 

 offer an example of thrift and industry to their neighbors. For 

 example, Macon County, in which I live, was the only one of 

 the Black Belt counties of Alabama which showed an increase 

 of Negro population in the decade from 1900 to 1910. The rea- 

 son was that a special effort had been made in that county to 

 improve the public schools and this brought into the county a 

 large number of progressive farmers who were anxious to own 

 homes in the neighborhood of a good school. 



G. W. McLeod, who owns "a large tract of land in Macon 

 County, Alabama, is a good example of the white planter who 

 treats his tenants well. Mr. McLeod believes in having a good 

 school in the community, so he gave an acre of ground upon 

 which the school house was built and $100 in addition to help 

 put up the $700 school house. He deeded the land to a set of 

 colored trustees. Mr. McLeod also offers annual prizes for the 

 best kept stock, best kept houses, best cared for children, best 

 attendance at Sunday school and church. The man or woman 

 guilty of taking intoxicating liquors or engaging in family quar- 

 rels is not eligible to prizes and must go at the end of the 

 year. 



Mr. McLeod by this method of dealing with his tenants has 

 little if any trouble in finding profitable tenants for his lands. 

 Not only does he find that this policy pays in cash, but he has 

 the satisfaction of seeing around him people who are prosperous 



